`INK' (AND LOVE) KEEPS COUPLE TOGETHER.

Byline: Jay Bobbin Tribune Media Services 

It's a month overdue, but ``Ink'' finally rolls off the TV-production press this week.

Real-life spouses Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen's CBS comedy was given more time when original creators weren't happy with it and ``Murphy Brown'' creator Diane English was brought on board as executive producer to help fix it very late in its development. The show debuts Oct. 21.

``Ink's'' premise stays basically the same: The two stars play divorcees working at the same New York City tabloid newspaper where the tension between them has been upped by the recent promotion that has made her his boss. Emmy-winning ``Cheers'' veteran Danson and ``Melvin and Howard'' Oscar-recipient Steenburgen also double as executive producers. English is somewhat surprised to find herself now holding that title, too.

``There had been rumors flying around town (Hollywood) that it wasn't going so well on `Ink','' she said, ``and I walked into my office one morning to find phone calls logged from (the chiefs of CBS and DreamWorks SKG, the studio turning out the show).

``They informed me that they had decided not to go forward with the episodes they had shot already, and that they really wanted to do a major overhaul, and they asked if I'd be interested. It was really the last thing on my mind, because a pilot I had made for CBS was not picked up. For the first time in about a dozen years, I was having a totally free summer to enjoy myself (`Murphy Brown' is now supervised by others), and I was about to head for Martha's Vineyard.''

Danson and Steenburgen happen to have a residence there, and English actually had been among the many producers to pitch them ideas last winter when they decided they wanted to do a series together. ``I had really pursued Ted and Mary very aggressively,'' she said. ``We'd had a number of meetings, and interestingly, one of the ideas was very similar to `Ink.' They got seduced by DreamWorks and off they went, and I went, `Oh, well, I guess it wasn't meant to be.' Then, it came back into my lap at a very wrong time in my life, but it was kind of hard to resist.''

After making last season's much-acclaimed NBC miniseries ``Gulliver's Travels'' together, the stars of ``Ink'' also were tempted by the series. Such classic ``screwball'' comedy movies as ``His Girl Friday'' were the inspirations of original ``Ink'' creator (and ``Mad About You'' alumnus) Jeffrey Lane, Steenburgen said.

``He wanted to write something that was less about a newspaper than about a relationship that is complex.,'' she explained. ``These are two people who literally cannot live with each other, and also cannot live without each other, for reasons that unveil themselves. They are the best of friends but, at times, the worst of enemies.''

Danson admits that getting used to playing a new series character has taken some time, given how long he was ``Cheers'' bartender Sam Malone. He remarked that doing the first ``Ink'' pilot ``was a little bit of an acid trip'' for him: ``I was looking for lemons to peel and a bar to put my feet on; I was really disoriented. When you do a show for 11 years, there's kind of an unconscious process that when you step back in front of the cameras again, it's like, `Oh, I should be doing this thing that I did.' I think the pressure for me was leaving behind (`Cheers'), allowing to discover who we are (on `Ink') and to be patient and let it grow.''

It's one thing for a husband and wife to make a miniseries with a finite shooting schedule, but quite another for them to embark on a weekly show that keeps them in each other's constant company, on the set as well as off it.

Danson is excited about this aspect of his relationship with his wife. ``I get to go be creative and scared and excited every day with the person I'm madly in love with, and I get to drive home with her at night. I'm proud of us, too, that we didn't come roaring out of the chute effortlessly; that we're really rolling up our sleeves and working together.''

Conceding that she hasn't been ``a gun for hire, so to speak, in many years,'' English claims she was challenged by the opportunity to completely re-create this show.

``We have a brand-new script, brand-new supporting characters and new actors in those roles, and a brand-new set,'' she said. ``I really do feel like this is something I gave birth to, because it's all very different than it was. That was a very important factor for me, because I did not want to be shackled to (`Ink's') past. This couple has a child now, which they didn't in the original, and they work at a much bigger newspaper. It's very contemporary, and it's the real deal.''

Ink

When: 8:30 p.m. Oct. 21

Network: CBS

Starring: Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) Mary and Ted's excellent advent ure

She's his boss in `Ink'

(2) Real-life couple Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson play a divorced couple working for the same newspaper in ``Ink.''